See Also

How Accurate Are Statistics
on Drinking Problems?

by David J. Hanson, Ph. D.

The welfare, if not the survival, of alcohol agencies
depends largely on promoting the widespread belief that problems
caused by alcohol abuse are enormous and growing. However, such
distortions are self-serving and may be counter-productive in promoting
the moderate and responsible consumption of beer, wine or distilled
spirits (liquor).

Citizens have a right to expect the truth, but the welfare, if
not the survival, of many alcohol agencies depends largely on promoting
the widespread belief that problems caused by abusing alcohol beverages
are enormous, that they are growing, and that they are a serious
burden on the economy.

While such groups typically state as fact that alcohol beverages
are responsible for half of all traffic deaths in the United States,
this statistic has no solid foundation. The most accurate estimates,
however, from the unbiased National Academy of Sciences, are that
roughly one-quarter of fatal accidents are caused by intoxication.

Similarly, estimates of the number of auto crashes in which alcohol
beverages might be involved in any way (bystander, pedestrian, etc.)
become transformed into statistics on the number of accidents that
are actually caused by drunk drivers.

In addition to exaggerating the extent of drinking problems, some
alcohol agencies also distort the costs of alcohol abuse by basing
estimates on questionable assumptions, by confusing correlation
with causality, by looking only at costs while ignoring the economic
benefits of the sunstance, and by not using sound accounting principles.

Estimates by independent researchers of the number of people who
have experienced any drinking problem within the previous three
years as well as those of the number likely ever to experience a
problem in the future have been transformed into agency assertions
of the actual number of problem drinkers. And this in spite of protests
of the researchers to the distortions and misuse of their data.

The motives of many groups are apparent. One is an attempt to justify
the existence of jobs while the other is to expand bureaucratic
budgets and power.